A man has been detained for flying a drone near the White House, law enforcement officials tell NBC News.
The craft was flown 100 feet above Lafayette Park near the White House, Secret Service officials said in a statement. The man was instructed to land the craft in the park.
"As a precaution, the small (craft) was swept and declared safe by the Metropolitan Police Department," the statement continued. "The individual was turned over to the custody of the U.S. Park Police."
President Barack Obama was not at the White House and is at Camp David at a summit with Gulf nation leaders.
The incident is also part of a series of high profile security breaches near the White House and U.S. Capitol.
The incident comes a day after federal aviation officials launched a public outreach campaign on Wednesday to remind people that flying drones in and around the Washington, D.C., area is prohibited.
Last month police arrested a Florida gyro-copter pilot after the craft landed on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. A government watchdog released a report late Wednesday finding that two senior Secret Service agents were "more likely than not" impaired by alcohol when they drove a government vehicle through a secure area at the White House earlier this year.
Earlier this year, a man landed a drone on the White House grounds. He told authorities that he was testing how it would perform in bad weather but lost track of it and did not realize it had landed in a tree on the lawn of the White House until he saw news reports describing the incident, the sources said.
More information was not immediately available.
